Book for young adults that tells the story of the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans through the oral history voices of those who were children and young adults at the time.

Synopsis

A Fence Away From Freedom
is divided into ten chapters, along with introductory materials and an epilogue. Each chapter is devoted to a specific topic and features short excerpts from relevant interviews, combined with explanatory material by the author. While many chapters cover standard aspects of the story, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to life in the camps to the story of Nisei soldiers, Levine also focuses on some less well-known stories. These include short chapters devoted to the
Manzanar Children's Village
, an orphanage in
Manzanar
, featuring accounts by a women who was briefly held there and by a former staff person, and one on
Japanese Peruvian
inmates, featuring interviews with five people who were brought to U.S. concentration camps with their families as children from Peru. A lengthy chapter on resistance features the story of
draft resistance
,
Tule Lake
, and the renunciation of citizenship. The last chapter looks at the
redress movement
and the various threads that led up to it, while the interviewees reflect on the legacy of the incarceration in the epilogue. Supplementary materials include a glossary, chronology, map of camp sites, short biographies of the interviewees, and brief bibliography. The book also includes a fourteen-page section with period photographs of most of the interviewees.

Additional Information

Author Ellen Levine (1939–2012) had been a filmmaker and photographer who later became a public interest lawyer. Starting in her late forties, she began authoring books for young people, many of which focused on history and on civil rights related topics, with her best known book likely
Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories
(1993), which won the Jane Addams Peace Award.

In the book's preface, Levine wrote that she was urged to write the
A Fence Away From Freedom
by friends who lived in Cody, Wyoming, near the site of the
Heart Mountain
camp. She visited the site in 1992 and went on to interview many former inmates from the various concentration camps. While most ranged in age from six to the early twenties, she also interviewed some adults who were key historical figures in the camps, such as Harry Ueno (35 at the time of his incarceration) and Frank Emi (25). Interviews with thirty-five people are featured in the book.

Reviews

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
, Nov. 1995, 97.

Bush, Margaret A.
Horn Book
, March-April, 1996, 226. ["The emotional resonance of the personal histories, along with the detailed information about camp life, politics, and postwar events, makes the book a rich resource."]

Pauli, David N.
School Library Journal
, Dec. 1995, 137. ["This is an excellent source of information about a period of our history that is just beginning to be fully examined.]

Rochman, Hazel.
Booklist
, Oct. 1, 1995, 302.

Smith, William J.
Book Report
, March-April 1996, 55. ["This well-researched book reveals little known facts about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and its aftermath."]

Voice of Youth Advocates
, Feb. 1996, 398.

Learn more in the Densho Encyclopedia, a free on-line resource covering the key concepts, people, events, and organizations that played a role in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Chronology

Point of View

Theme

Availability

Free On Web

Teacher Guide

Learn more in the Densho Encyclopedia, a free on-line resource covering the key concepts, people, events, and organizations that played a role in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Useful Links

The Resource Guide to Media on the Japanese American Removal and Incarceration is a free project of Densho. Our mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy, and promote equal justice for all.